Tag Archives: UK infrastructure

I’m still alive and feeding myself (and using up some leftovers). I’m building the other engines I got from VCG Resins (the LS7 and the Ford Coyote) so that I don’t spend much time thinking about not being with Mrs. the Poet and doing my own cooking. Something I noticed is the LS7 engine is almost identical to the SBC, while the Coyote is slightly shorter but much wider than the SBC. I can foresee much wailing and gnashing of teeth trying to get that in the same chassis and especially under the same hood as the SBC. I mean the hood barely fits over the SBC when everything is above the bottom of the lower frame rail and the body sits on top of that 1.5″ square lower frame rail. And I just measured the thickness of the transmission pan and the thickness of the temp floor in the bucket and if I use the temp adhesive to glue the transmission to the inside of the floor without the pan it raises the engine to exactly the height it would be if the bottom of the body was sitting on top of a scale 1.5″ square rod. This makes mocking up much easier, and I will be able to take a picture showing almost exactly what I would see from the driver’s seat of the 1:1 Sprint-T.

Still in CA. 2 Suspects Sought in Shooting Death of Man Riding Bicycle in San Bernardino Talk about stupid, if they had run the guy over and stayed at the scene and cried a bit how they never saw the guy until they hit him, there would have been no big deal over the dead guy and LEO probably wouldn’t have even put any points on the driver’s license. But because they shot the cyclist now there is a big manhunt going on and probably both are going to get charged with murder and conspiracy to commit.

OK, now that Big Story, more on the drunk driver that hit a group of 10 cyclists waiting in a bike lane for a red light in AZ. 2 bicyclists killed, 2 injured on Tucson’s NW side and Santa Fe bicyclist killed in Arizona; truck driver arrested also 2 bike riders dead as pickup hits New Mexico group in Tucson this too Santa Fe cyclists among those killed, injured by impaired driver in Arizona Again, there were 10 bikes in the group, 4 cyclists were injured enough to not be able to walk from the wreck site, one was pronounced dead at the scene, one died after reaching the hospital, one remains in critical condition, and one may already be out by the time I hit the “publish” button on the composing page. There was some speculation that the driver may have been distracted in addition to being drunk, which would make his loss of driving skills drunk2. Actually I don’t know that is true, I’m extrapolating from the MythBusters episode where they compared driving with a cell phone (hand-held and hands-free) to driving with a BAC of 0.08% and found cell phone driving to be slightly worse than drunk driving, so combining the two would be either 2drunk or drunk2. It all depends on if it is a linear or exponential relationship. And I just went full nerd on you, sorry.

It took FL LEO long enough to charge this guy. Driver charged in death of Weston bicyclist I mean he only killed the guy back in July, the victim died at the scene so they were not waiting on tox screens or anything.

An important part of WI infrastructure. Teaching Safe Bicycling Couse Misspelled word is a cut-and-paste from the headline, I know where to put the “r” in “course”. It does slightly worry me that such a major typo got through.

Another link to the man convicted of careless driving for killing a cyclist while driving drunk. Seven years behind bars for West Molesey man who killed a cyclist Once again I say this was a case of serious under-charging when they called driving drunk “careless”. Seriously, drinking and driving is a deliberate act, not “careless”.

I was running all over town to take care of things like utility bills, phone bills, and paying for the storage unit, after I did my duty as a citizen and voted in the Super Tuesday primary. This was a great endeavor that took many hours to complete because of several missed connections with DART. This time the missed connections were not DART’s fault, unless you count a lack of headway as “their fault”. Seriously I finished each stop I would leave just in time to see the bus go by in the direction of my next stop and I would have to wait 45 minutes to an hour for the next bus. So I spent 2 hours actually doing the things, and 5 hours waiting on the bus to get there.

FloriDUH! driver hits cycle from behind, blames cyclist for being in the middle of the lane. Man on motorized bicycle killed in crash And I do not see what the criminal record of the victim has to do with this wreck, again… Message to LEO, if the cyclist was hit from behind then speed DEFINITELY has something to do with the wreck.

New Portland bike infrastructure had been open less than 24 hours before someone in a motor vehicle screwed it up. New Sellwood Bridge opens with a “Dang!” I see a vehicle that needs to be recycled. Into bicycles.

Compare the above incident to what has been going on near a school and see if you can tell me what the difference is. Southeast Portland elementary warns parents about unsafe cycling near school Agghhh! those cyclists going almost 10 MPH through a stop sign are a menace to everyone! But the pickup truck driven by a drunk driver with suspected drugs in the cab on a MUP closed to motor vehicles, that’s just a chuckle. Except the “chuckle” closed the MUP for most of the day and the adjacent traffic lanes for more than 6 hours.

And there will be a race from one of the two series the Sprint-T is designed to compete in this month over in Ft. Worth. Goodguys AutoCross This will be in 2 weeks at the Texas Motor Speedway north of Ft. Worth and literally just a hop, skip, and a jump away from WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. The only problem would be I still haven’t picked a tire/wheel combination that fits the rules yet, the Hoosiers are not UTQG wear graded and are not really made for dry grip. I would have to go with a 17″ rim diameter or larger to get high performance tires in the required UTQG rating, because they just don’t make high performance summer tires to fit 15″ rims these days.

And It’s getting late and almost time for Mrs. the Poet to get up and get ready to go to NY for her sister’s memorial service(s).

It’s looking like the Chromebook is about to be replaced whether I like it or not. I’m getting keyboard issues, things like keypresses not getting registered or keys getting stuck, and also the touchpad sometimes puts the cursor where I tell it and clicks when I click it, and sometimes it just does nothing. If I’m doing my sums right I got the Chromebook late March 2013, which makes it right at 3 years old now and used as much as 18 hours a day for work and recreation, an average of say 9 hours a day, every day since March 2013 so 3 * 365 * 9 gets roughly 9800 hours of use. That’s a lot of ham-fingered typing, clicking, and page views, so the little lap top has a right to be worn out. There are some things about Chrome OS that I’m [not thrilled] with, specifically their habit of doing OS updates without permission. This has caused me to lose functionality for certain things several times when I really needed that particular thing to work, like when I lost MP4 audio right before doing a presentation that was dependant on MP4 videos as emphasis for certain points of the presentation. I mean what good are music videos with no music?

On the far northwest corner of the same county WoaB World HQ resides, cyclists are getting tired of getting hit. Coppell Cycling Community Nervous After Rash of Accidents With Cars Yep, once again physics proves that what would be a minor fender-bender for a car or truck is an extended hospital stay when a cyclist subs for one of the cars or trucks. I’m really glad they are going with the BMUFL regulatory signs instead of the “Share The Road” advisory signs that are frequently interpreted by drivers as “Bicycles get out of my F&$(*&% way” signs.

Still in CA and still about hit-and-run. Suspect arrested in San Jose hit-and-run that killed cyclist This was the H&R where they found the weapon vehicle with major damage and minus license plates a few miles from the scene. So it’s not like the driver can claim lack of knowledge about hitting the cyclist.

Trying to get FL out of worst-place ranking. Florida Launches Hit-and-Run ‘Bad to Worse’ Campaign When you look at how much more deadly a wreck becomes when the victim is denied access to quick intervention by medical personnel, preventing H&R and getting EMTs and ambulances on scene ASAP seems like a no-brainer for reducing the death rate.

Some good news on infrastructure in PA. Grant approved for Rail Trail expansion in Newville The expansion will take the rail trail right up to the local HS, providing a safe route to and from the school, meaning less motor vehicles on the roads around the school. It was fortuitous that the school abutted the old railroad when it was built.

I’m trying to get as much done as I can early today because we have a family friend visiting from England taking us out to dinner tonight. Since Mexican restaurants in England range in quality from so-so to vile we are probably going for Mexican tonight.

And while I start doing this in the early afternoon I know it won’t get posted until after midnight, so I’m just going to ask if you hugged your transgender friends yesterday for Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Up first because something has to be, NYC actually punished a driver for killing. SUV Driver Who Fatally Struck Woman On UWS Convicted Of Homicide And now we know what it takes to get a prosecution for killing a pedestrian or cyclist: Drive on the wrong side of the road, hit the victim with the right of way, and have the victim be the 4th person you have injured with your vehicle in 6 months.

Down the road a few days ride from WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell a cyclist is hit-and-run. Cyclist killed in hit-and-run crash Those of my readers local to the scene keep an ocular exposed for motor vehicles wuth heavy front end damage.

I hate this hit-and-run just as much as the previous paragraph. Bicyclist killed in Everett hit and run accident “He was taken to Providence Medical Center in Everett and was expected to be booked into the Snohomish County Jail for vehicular homicide.”

Update on a CO wreck. Driver in Olde Stage hit-and-run that injured cyclist will be charged “Daniel Updike, 33, of Lafayette will be charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury, failure to report a crash, careless driving resulting in injury, aggravated habitual traffic offenderand driving without insurance.” I would say the driver was very lucky the cyclist survived, with a rap sheet like that he would have been charged with murder if the cyclist died.

Over in Jolly Olde they are starting to repaircorrect a deadly collection of intersections that all dump together. London Bank junction to be transformed for cyclists, buses and pedestrians The previous form of the intersections was just kind of thrown together from the old Roman roads, not actually “designed”. The new plaza will actually be designed for all modes of transportation, and hopefully they will stop killing people.

This is what happens when your kitten starts to fall off your lap while you’re trying to type. Warning, it ain’t pretty.

Front claws in the thigh, back claws in the calf and he still ended up in a pile of fluff on the floor. Fortunately it didn’t hurt that bad initially, until I started to disinfect the scratches with hand sanitizer. Then it really hurt. But as you can see there is no infection, so the pain was worth it. The kitty hugs and kisses are worth it too.

A MI cyclist is hit “crossing” the road. Cyclist, Still Unidentified, Seriously Injured in Crash SWCC that I can’t say anything about because I don’t have any pictures of the bike. At this point they aren’t saying who had the right of way, or much of anything aside from the intersection and the direction of the weapon vehicle.

Over in AL a cyclist is blamed for getting hit from behind. Cullman bicyclist struck, killed by vehicle on St. Joseph Drive OK so maybe lights and reflectors on the bike would be a good idea, but the fact remains the law says drivers have to only drive as fast as they can stop in the distance they can see clearly, and this driver didn’t.

Still in CA another link to the guy killed trying to get to the bike lane in the median. Cyclist killed on Page Mill Road The consensus at this time is most of the blame in this wreck is on the infrastructure and the extremely dangerous merge across two lanes of 50 MPH traffic to get from one bike lane to the other.

Meanwhile on the other side of the country we discover the driver that flipped his car over on top of the guy walking on the sidewalk was not driving with a valid license. Unlicensed Driver Arrested After Killing Man On Crowded Brooklyn Sidewalk He was trying to prevent another car from passing him and lost control. Of course because he didn’t have a license to remind him that driving is a privilege and not a right.

The way to avoid getting killed in Canada isn’t to wear a helmet, you need to grow ovaries. Female cyclists have lower hospitalization rates, study finds Of course this is exactly counter to experience in the UK where 6 out of 7 cyclists killed in London was a woman crushed by a semi or large delivery vehicle.

This just seems like a good way to get an assault charge. Injured cyclist to meet driver “Good afternoon, this is the man who crippled you for life. Please try not to strangle him with his own intestines.” Yeah, I can see that working real well.

Last link may end up being one of the most important changes to e-assist technology in history. Hydrogen Fuel Cells Are Becoming Too Big to Ignore Cars could refuel/recharge in about 5 minutes, e-bikes in 5-10 seconds. Imagine 10 seconds connected to a high-pressure hose instead of 2 hours connected to mains current.

And I’m done for the day. I went out again to build up some points on that mobile game and managed to clear $0.40 +/- but it was a bit rough on the feets.

The D&D game scheduled for this afternoon was called off because the logistics just couldn’t be made to work. There were too many people who needed rides to get there in time because even those of us who have DART access still have over a 90 minute ride to the game. There is one person who no longer has a car and also does not have DART access, so getting that person (and her character sheet) to the game requires someone with a car to go get her.

The weather system that has brought record high temperatures to the Northeast has brought cool, damp, and cloudy conditions to Casa de El Poeta. The AC hasn’t kicked on more than a few minutes total in the last 3 days, even with the dryer going while my son did his laundry. In fact as I type this it’s only 74°F in my office that normally sees 78-80° all summer long. Outside is only 68° so I might be changing from shorts to long pants soon.

Over in the most deadliest state to walk or ride a bike in the US, a cyclist is right hooked. Flagler student injured when SUV hits bike The driver was given a ticket in the wreck. The cyclist got unspecified injuries.

NYS still refuses to bring their laws about e-assist into the 21st Century. HELP WIN THE USE OF E-BIKES IN NYS Despite Federal regulations that changed e-assist bikes status to “bicycle” back in 2002 NYS insists that they are “motor-driven vehicles” and can arrest the rider and confiscate the bike if not registered as a moped. But, because of the Federal regs they can’t be registered because they lack a valid VIN and can’t get one because they aren’t motor vehicles.

The end of Daylight Savings Time has been seriously messing with people in the Great White North. Cyclist injured in hit and run in Lorraine They have no idea of what happened before the driver left aside from clobbering the cyclist with a motor vehicle.

Switzerland has the same situation as other EU countries, cars are getting better at protecting those inside, but not those outside. Serious e-bike and other cycling accidents rise Drivers are still running into things at the same rate, but people inside motor vehicles in those wrecks are not getting hurt. Those outside motor vehicles are still getting injured and dying at the same rate.

I’m working at transferring a mailing list that I moderate for the church over to someone else, only I can’t because I’m not the owner. The last anyone heard from the owner was in 2012, and we are not even sure that he is still on this side of the veil. He would be in his late 60s or early 70s by this point, and his access to social media or email are “iffy” if he’s still alive. But right now I can’t do what needs to be done, and that frustrates me.

More from CA. Cyclist Dies After PCH Collision Again, without seeing the wreckage I can’t verify the “crossing” portion of the narrative. Assuming the narrative is factually correct, what we have here is either a cyclist not paying attention (possible) or a stretch of road that can be clear when a cyclists starts to cross, but there may be cross traffic before getting to the other side. There needs to be testing to see if the second scenario is true, and either a refuge island provided to make a 2 stage crossing, or a reduction in the speed limit so that crossing the road isn’t like playing Russian Roulette. Give people at least half a chance at survival.

A KS cyclist is right-crossed while crossing with the light in the crosswalk. Bicyclist injured in accident I’m trying to wrap my head around the geometry of this wreck, it appears the cyclist may have been riding salmon but would have been coming at the weapon vehicle from the front rather than the side. So basically the driver blew the red (because the only way this could have happened as described would be for a simultaneous ped signal and turn arrow signal, which would have been a solid red to the driver) and didn’t look in front of the vehicle to make sure the crosswalk was clear, oorrr, the driver failed to notice the light had changed while making sure traffic had cleared and when they stopped he went without looking. So either way this went, the driver went without looking in the crosswalk to make sure there was nothing in his path.

Cyclists are injured in multiple wrecks in West Canuckistan on the same day. Cyclists injured in two separate Saanich crashes One was a two-for-one that was almost a three-for, as a driver either crossed or hooked three cyclists but one managed to avoid the vehicle. How do you turn into three cyclists, unless you meant to? The other cyclist was hit running a stop sign. [sigh]

Last link is from Enn Zed, and is something I can commiserate with. Cyclist badly injured in truck crash accuses Wellington hospital of neglect This sounds exactly like what happened to me, because CAT scans can only detect DAI (Diffuse Axonal Injury) when there is a baseline scan for comparison, like what is required for F1 and IndyCar drivers before the start of every season. Diffuse Axonal Injury is a sneaky kind of TBI, it can affect a large part of the brain, but unless it is a part the victim has to use while being treated it doesn’t get noticed until it’s too late to treat it. For me it was the loss of foreign languages and a large chunk of specialized vocabulary. For other people it is other things.

Looking at my phone the temp just went to 103°F with the heat index “only” 102 because there is almost no humidity. Seriously the air in Phoenix is more humid than the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, 22% in TX to 26% in AZ. And I actually go out and ride a bike in weather like this, wearing a full-face helmet. Well nobody has accused me of being “normal” lately. Speaking of that there are only 20 more shopping days to get me a Death Day present. I’m looking for RPG dice this year, especially d6 and d8. And I’m a vain geek, I want pretty dice that kinda match. And seriously about this, I’m playing a game now where I sometimes need as many as 10 d6 for damage rolls because my Warlock is heavily buffed with stacking magic items that both increase his “to hit” as well as his damage. I mean my to hit is now +13 against the touch AC of my opponent meaning against most non-monsters I hit every time, and I have better than even odds against pretty much all of the monsters. Currently it takes me longer to roll damage than most people take to play a turn because of my lack of d6. 😦

Right now it appears the Big Story is the woman hit by a semi in Boston on Friday morning. Cyclist Killed by Tractor Trailer Identified and Cyclist’s death spotlights Mass. Ave. peril also Recent fatal bike encounters with trucks, buses this too Police search for flatbed truck after bicyclist hit and killed at Boston more like this Bicycle rider killed in Back Bay crash in the previous link you can see the cyclist just before she was hit under the passenger side mirror of the picture of the weapon vehicle. Police Identify Bicyclist Killed In Back Bay Accident I’m going to make a 100% absolutely serious recommendation here: Ban large trucks like this from urban areas unless accompanied by bicyclist outriders front and rear to make sure that no pedestrians or cyclists get run over because drivers can’t see out of the right side or directly in front of the vehicle. The outriders’ responsibility would be to ensure that there was nothing and nobody in the way of the truck before allowing it to make a turning movement and hold the truck until the way had been cleared with the front outrider keeping people from turning across the truck and the back outrider making sure nobody comes from behind, and both making sure that the people who got there first have time to get out of the way, then the truck can make a turn. Obviously this is much more important when making a right turn because such large vehicles have to fade far to the left to clear such things as light poles and sidewalks, but there is still some issues with the left turns from a one-way street that require fading right for clearance. Using bicyclists as outriders means the forward speed is more or less limited to a safe speed. Late addition Surgeon Remembered After Being Struck and Killed on Bike

From a few hours ride east of WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Calls for road safety after Longview cyclist crashes“It’s not if I’m going to get hit, it’s when,” which sounds pretty pessimistic, but this is TX, the state where the 2 biggest-selling vehicles are pickup trucks in spite of most of the population living in one of 6 urban areas.

Same area, slightly earlier. Mission Beach Cyclist Severely Injured in Hit-and-Run Area readers are encouraged to BOLO for the weapon vehicle, have SDPD non-emergency number on speed dial. And PD need to have the ability to get texts and attachments from cell phones so that vital information can be sent from people on the scene instead of trying to describe the situation verbally. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Still in MN a left cross wreck injures a young girl. Minnesota Girl Injured On Bicycle After Car Struck Her This story is just so bizarre. The driver was the victim of random mob violence a few years ago that left him brain damaged and was just now starting to get something resembling a normal life back when he turned left into the cyclist. As a member of both groups, brain damaged and cyclist, I don’t know which I should feel more sorry for. But as a member of both groups I also need to say they should test the driver for his degree of perception to his left, as well as can he physically turn his head to see that direction. He may have undiscovered defects on that side of his body, that he may not even know about.

Another hit-from-behind wreck in WI. Bicyclist hurt in Sunday crash named Other than the fact the driver stayed at the scene and rendered aid to the cyclist until medical help arrived it was a common hit-from-behind wreck.

Second link is the bus driver that hit a cyclist in plain view and dragging his body until there was no hope of survival and getting away with it. Bus driver who dragged cyclist to his death and failed to stop avoids jail That distance in American (formerly Imperial English) is almost 80 feet. And WTF?!? “Death by Dangerous Driving” is the most serious driving offense in the book, and he got probation?

Since the last file of links won’t show up in the Feed folder until after midnight Friday is a good day to go do things. So I went to get a massage to try to do something about my neck, which has stopped getting better about two weeks ago. My range of motion hasn’t improved much over the big jump I had on the day after surgery, and my neck still cracks every time I try looking up. The good thing today was after the massage I was able to turn the overhead light on without using Braille, I could look almost straight up to find the pull chain on the light. That won’t last, but I hope there will be some carryover until I get another massage.

Update on a FL fatal hit-and-run. Suspect arrested in hit-and-run that killed teen on bike They did a database search for cars matching the description, narrowed it down by specifying a radius from the wreck and then went and looked at all the cars until they found the weapon vehicle. Exactly what I told the detective to do in my wreck, but he said it was “too hard”…

This Chicago cyclist isn’t fooling around. Cyclist avows injuries, sues three The driver that doored her, the driver that hit her when she got doored, because he shouldn’t have been driving, and the owner of the car that hit her for allowing a driver who was required to have “adult supervision” to drive alone. If she’d lucky she might get enough to pay her doctor and hospital bills and cover her lost income and maybe even the costs of moving after losing her apartment…

A cyclist in VA is found bleeding on the side of the road. Stuart man injured while riding bicycle Apparently they don’t think he was hit by anything, just fell down after getting dizzy or something.

This is about as far east as you can get in Canada without taking a ferry. Cyclist injured After looking at the front of that car, if the driver stopped it was only for a fraction of a second and it was burning rubber until contact with the cyclist. IOW this was a left cross at speed.

Automating road surveys so they are done constantly instead of once or twice a year. Pittsburgh Program Looks to Seal the Cracks in Urban Road Management Good pavement looks textureless to the program, but as the pavement degrades it develops more and more texture, until it hits a point where it has to be replaced. Using this program will keep maintenance from getting behind the curve so that roads can be repaired instead of rebuilt and lower costs.

I had to go out in the heat again, this time to buy shorts (outerwear) because the ones I have now are well on the way to becoming rags. I have one (1) pair that is not split up the back and only useful for wearing around the house when I don’t want to bother getting dressed, and that pair is developing huge holes where the pockets used to be. The corners of the pockets started to tear away from the then pants, and even though the pockets have been removed the holes continue to grow with every wearing. So I go to the store to buy new shorts I can wear on the bike or just “around”. Back soon, I swear. 😀 OK, I bought 3 pairs of shorts on sale at the Old Navy across the street from the sporting goods store I shopped first and rejected for costing too much, total costs $21.01 including tax. I got one black, one medium grey, and one light green pair in my size on sale for 50% off. So now I don’t have to wear raggedy shorts outside just to have pockets for stuff.

A cyclist in MA finds that drivers do not pay attention to bikes anywhere. Cyclist injured after colliding with car in Brockton Cyclist negotiating a parking lot and driver not looking for bicycles in the parking lot. And a miraculous transformation took place, “The man was riding a bicycle in the parking lot of the Westgate Mall about 10 a.m. when he turned into a car.” I wish I could turn into a car sometimes. Does anyone remember Turbo Teen?

I think this might be infrastructure-related, seeing as this was the scene of one of the UK’s worst motor vehicle wrecks before this bike wreck. Cyclist dies after falling from notorious bridge in North Yorkshire Dales The bridge has been in existence at least since 1925 when they had a big wreck there that killed 7, but that is no excuse especially since they had the wreck in 1975.

And I’m outta links again. Only 26 more days until my Death Day celebration! I think I want some new dice this year, I don’t have enough d6 for my D&D3.5e Warlock10 that I’m playing, and none of my digital rollers will let me roll damage in one roll either. I have magical devices that give me a total of +13 to hit with Eldritch Blast (ranged touch attack), and a total of 10d6 damage when I hit, which I do anytime I roll a 2 or higher against almost all enemies.